Methods and apparatus to route control packets based on address partitioning

ABSTRACT

Disclosed example routing methods include accessing a control packet originating from a first internal router, translating the destination address of the control packet from a first value to a second value, and identifying a first one of a plurality of outgoing interfaces of a meta-router based on the second value of the destination address, the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router in communication with respective incoming interfaces of a splitter. Disclosed example methods also include forwarding the control packet to the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router after translating the destination address of the control packet from the second value back to the first value, and routing the control packet from the splitter to an external router based on which one of the incoming interfaces of the splitter receives the control packet from the meta-router.

RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/786,162 (now U.S. Pat. No. ______), which is entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS TO ROUTE CONTROL PACKETS BASED ON ADDRESS PARTITIONING,” and which was filed on May 24, 2010. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/786,162 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to routing and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus to route control packets based on address partitioning.

BACKGROUND

The Internet is composed of an underlying infrastructure and communication protocols operating in conjunction with the infrastructure. The infrastructure can be viewed as a network topology combining links and routers, while the protocols are meta-communication algorithms that facilitate efficient usage of the infrastructure. Protocols may include Internet Protocol (IP), Open Shortest Path First (OPSF), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and/or Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).

Traditionally, Internet development has focused on the evolution, creation, and/or improvement of the protocols while the infrastructure has received relatively less attention. Because the performance of the infrastructure and the protocols affect each other, neglect of the infrastructure may cause issues to manifest within the protocols. For example, rapid growth in address prefixes associated with the IP version four (IPv4) protocol has created an issue where routing entities (e.g., infrastructure components) are running out of forwarding memory. Currently, solutions to this issue focus on protocol improvements and/or changes including route reflectors and/or the implementation of BGP. In other examples, infrastructure may be improved by deploying new generations of router technology or adding subcomponents to current routers to account for increased loads. However, new generation routers and/or subcomponents may be costly to implement, time consuming to validate, and may require a new communication protocol.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an example communication system including an example a Router Extensibility via Address-based Partitioning (REAP) router.

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate an example manner of implementing the example REAP router of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a functional block diagram of an example meta-router that may be included within the REAP router of FIGS. 1, 2A, 2B, and/or 2C.

FIG. 4 illustrates the example meta-router of FIG. 3 performing address translation to route control packet(s).

FIG. 5 illustrates the example REAP router of FIGS. 1, 2A, 2B, and/or 2C implementing link bundling.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate the example meta-router of FIG. 3 transitioning to a secondary router within a router array.

FIGS. 7A-7C are flowcharts representative of example machine-accessible instructions that may be executed to implement the example REAP router, the meta-router, the splitter and/or the router array of FIGS. 1-6B.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of an example processor platform that may be used and/or programmed to execute the example instructions of FIGS. 7A-7C to implement any of all of the example methods and apparatus disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, articles of manufacture, and apparatus to route control packets based on address partitioning are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving a packet in a server, determining the packet is a control packet, forwarding the packet to a processor, and identifying via the processor an address prefix of the packet. The example method also includes accessing a forwarding table and determining via the processor at least one of a router or an outgoing interface that corresponds to the identified address prefix, transmitting the packet from the processor to the server via the outgoing interface, and statically forwarding the packet from the server to the router based on an interface that received the packet from the processor.

A disclosed example apparatus includes a processor to identify an address prefix of a packet, access a forwarding table and determine at least one of a router or an outgoing interface that corresponds to the identified address prefix, and transmit the packet via the outgoing interface. The example apparatus also includes a server to statically forward the packet to the router based on an interface that received the packet from the processor.

A packet communication network (e.g., the Internet) provides connectivity between users and/or enterprises. A relatively small number of users may be communicatively coupled together via a switching device (e.g., a router). However, as the number of users and/or enterprises increases, the switching device may experience capacity issues. These capacity issues may include an availability of interfaces or ports, an end-to-end latency increase of packets propagating through the switching device, an increase in forwarding table size, and/or increases in recovery times due to temporary unavailability of the switch.

To resolve the issues of a single switch, multiple switches and/or network routers at different physical locations may be combined together in a routing network configuration. In this configuration, adjacent routers and/or switches are directly communicatively coupled together. Further, each router and/or switch may directly couple to a subset of users and/or enterprises. Additionally, as data and control planes increase in size to accommodate increases in Internet usage, network infrastructure may be increased by adding subcomponents (e.g., line cards, interfaces, network bundles, etc.) to the routers and/or switches. However, as additional subcomponents are added, the network infrastructure may become more complicated. The network may be further complicated by implementing different protocols to support the subcomponents and/or by implementing management functionality to control the infrastructure components.

In addition to these infrastructure solutions, communication protocols are typically implemented to optimize routing paths and reduce latency with the routing network. In a routing network configuration, end-to-end latency may be minimized based on a routing protocol but processing delays may result from packets propagating through multiple routers (e.g., the infrastructure) to reach a destination. Further, the communication protocols may provide relatively quicker network recovery from temporary outages of one or more routers because the interconnectivity of the network topology facilities re-routing packets around a router and/or link experiencing an issue.

However, quicker recovery times achievable by communication protocols have a tradeoff of an increase in network management and complexity. In addition, communication protocols have become more complex to manage and optimize the routing network. Furthermore, with many different users and routers within the network, forwarding table sizes may be relatively large to accommodate the many routers, users, and/or enterprises. Additionally, forwarding table sizes have increased with the frequent use of multihoming to route packets.

The example methods, articles of manufacture, and apparatus described herein provide scalability of a communication network by implementing a REAP router. An example REAP router enables scalability and/or complexity management of a core router by using a logical switch and/or a router with multiple physical switches (e.g., routers). The logical switch includes multiple physical switches (e.g., routers), where any physical switch may take over a state (e.g., address subspace) of any other switch within the logical switch. The example REAP router scales infrastructure for managing data and control planes by managing router subcomponents as a single logical router. Each of the subcomponents may include routers within a router array with each router partitioned a subspace of an address space assigned to the REAP router. Each of the routers (e.g., subcomponents) within the REAP router perform control, data, and/or management plane functions.

Additionally, the example REAP router includes a splitter and/or a meta-router to route data and/or control packets to a physical router within the router array based on an address prefix and/or destination address associated with the packets. In this manner, each of the physical routers within the router array perform data, control, and/or management functions for only packets associated with the address subspace assigned to the physical routers. Furthermore, interfaces and/or forwarding tables (independent of a network protocol) may be distributed among the physical switches and/or routers enabling relatively better scalability than a core router. Because forwarding tables are distributed among the physical routers such that each physical router is partitioned into a subspace or a portion of the entire address space, the forwarding table size stored at each router is reduced.

The example REAP router described herein manages control and/or data packet flow among physical array routers via a splitter and/or a meta-router. The example splitter (e.g., a server) may receive packets from external routers (e.g., routers external to the REAP router), determine if the packets correspond to control or data packets, and forward the packets to the appropriate location. For example, the splitter may forward control packets to the meta-router (e.g., a processor). The example meta-router may access a forwarding table, determine a destination of the control packet (e.g., a physical router within the router array), and forward the control packet to an appropriate physical router via an interface of the splitter. The example meta-router may also manage the address subspace distribution among the physical routers within the router array. In another example, the splitter may determine packets are data packets. In this example, the splitter may access a forwarding table and determine to which array router the packets are to be forwarded. The splitter may then forward those packets to the physical router within the router array.

The corresponding physical router may perform data plane operations on the data packets to select an outgoing interface that corresponds to a next-hop and/or a destination of the packet. The physical router may transmit the data packets through an interface to the splitter, which then statically forwards the packet to the destination and/or next-hop router. In this manner, the example splitter may effectively or efficiently route traffic based on forwarding decisions made by the physical router within the router array while minimizing forwarding table sizes of each physical router.

The example REAP router may extend the shelf life of currently deployed routers by decoupling core router extensibility from specific router architecture improvements. In other words, the example REAP router provides infrastructure scalability without having to upgrade hardware and/or software to accommodate new protocols and/or increases in network load. By using standardized protocols, the physical routers within a router array may be viewed by a network as black boxes with well-defined interfaces. As a result, individual physical routers within the array may be replaced with secondary or backup routers without affecting external routers.

In the interest of brevity and clarity, throughout the following disclosure, reference will be made to an example communication system 100 of FIG. 1. However, the methods, articles of manufacture, and apparatus described herein to route packets in a network are applicable to other types of networks constructed using other network technologies, topologies and/or protocols. Protocols may include Internet Protocol (IP), Open Shortest Path First (OPSF), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and/or Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).

FIG. 1 illustrates the example communication system 100 that is implemented in connection with a switching network 102 (e.g., the Internet). The example switching network 102 may include any type of network for routing packet-based communications (e.g., data). The switching network 102 may be implemented by any type of public switched telephone network (PSTN) system(s), public land-mobile network (PLMN) system(s), wireless distribution system(s), wired or cable distribution system(s), coaxial cable distribution system(s), fiber-to-the-home network(s), fiber-to-the-curb network(s), fiber-to-the-pedestal network(s), fiber-to-the-vault network(s), fiber-to-the-neighborhood network(s), Ultra High Frequency (UHF)/Very High Frequency (VHF) radio frequency system(s), satellite or other extra-terrestrial system(s), cellular distribution system(s), power-line broadcast system(s), and/or combinations and/or hybrids of these devices, systems and/or networks.

The example switching network 102 is communicatively coupled to external routers 104 a-k that may be included within other switching networks and/or associated with users and/or enterprises (e.g., clients). The example external routers 104 a-k may be packet-based switches such as, for example, the Catalyst 3000 and/or 5000 series of switches from Cisco Systems, Inc. Some of the external routers 104 a-k may communicatively couple the example switching network 102 to other switching networks and/or to users. Additionally, the example external routers 104 a-k may be communicatively coupled to a gateway (e.g., a modem) providing a network interface for customer premises equipment (e.g., a computer, a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a laptop, etc.).

To route packets from the external routers 104 a-k, the example switching network 102 includes a REAP router 110. The example REAP router 110 provides packet routing for regions including relatively small regions (e.g., tens of square miles) to relatively large regions (e.g., a few hundred square miles) that typically may be managed by a core router. The external routers 104 a-k of FIG. 1 may be communicatively coupled to the logical REAP router 110 via any wired and/or wireless communication medium (e.g., a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a Virtual LAN (VLAN), Wireless LAN (WLAN) network, etc.). In other examples, the communication system 100 may include fewer or more external routers 104 a-k communicatively coupled to the REAP router 110.

The example REAP router 110 is a logical router that includes an array of physical routers 112 a-f. In other examples, the REAP router 110 may include fewer or more physical routers. The physical routers 112 a-f are organized within the REAP router 110 so that each physical router 112 a-f is assigned an address subspace for routing packets. For example, the REAP router 110 may be responsible for routing packets among the external routers 104 a-k. In this example, the physical router 112 a may be assigned an address subspace that corresponds to the external routers 104 a-c. Thus, packets and/or traffic with a header that specifies a destination that is reachable via the external routers 104 a-c are directed by the REAP router 110 to the physical router 112 a. The physical router 112 a may then access a forwarding table to determine an appropriate interface so that packets and/or traffic are routed to the external routers 104 a-c.

By partitioning destination address subspace among the physical routers 112 a-f, the forwarding tables within the physical routers 112 a-f may include fewer entries. Fewer entries in a forwarding table may result in less memory and lookup time for packet routing by the physical routers 112 a-f. In some examples, the REAP router 110 may manage the address subspace assigned to the physical routers 112 a-f so that the address subspace assigned to each physical router 112 a-f may be adjusted based on load, redundancy, and/or fault protection. Because the physical routers 112 a-f are located at the same physical location within the REAP router 110, network management and failsafe backup operations may be performed relative quickly and efficiently.

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate an example manner of implementing the example REAP 110 router of FIG. 1 for different network planes. FIG. 2A shows a configuration of interfaces 204-209 between a splitter 202 and the physical router 112 a. The physical router 112 a may be located within a routing array. In this example, a communication link 210 is coupled to the interface 204 and a communication link 212 is coupled to the interface 205. Additionally, a communication link 214 communicatively couples the interface 206 of the splitter 202 to the interface 208 of the router 112 a. Similarly, a communication link 216 communicatively couples the interface 207 of the splitter 202 to the interface 209 of the router 112 a. The example communication links 210-216 may be implemented by any wired and/or wireless communication path (e.g., Ethernet, IEEE-802.11, Wi-Fi®, IEEE 1901.1, etc.).

The example in FIG. 2A shows that the external communication links 210 and 212 correspond to the respective internal communication links 214 and 216. Specifically, the external communication link 210 corresponds to the internal communication link 214 to form a first interface set and the external communication link 212 corresponds to the internal communication link 216 to form a second interface set. The example REAP router 110 is configured so that any incoming or outgoing packets traverse the communication links within the same interface set with switching between the interfaces sets occurring at the physical routers (e.g., the physical router 112 a) within a router array.

For example, incoming packets to the REAP router 110 propagating along the communication link 210 are statically forwarded by the splitter 202 to the physical router 112 a via the communication link 214. The example splitter 202 determines that the packets arrived via the interface 204 and forwards the packets to the router 112 a via the interface 206 that corresponds to the communication link 214. In a similar manner, the splitter 202 forwards packets received from the physical router 112 a to the external network based on an interface that received the packet. For example, the physical router 112 a may receive packets, access a forwarding table to determine an outgoing interface (e.g., the interface 209) to route the packets, and transmit the packets along the communication link 216. The splitter 202 receives the packets via the interface 207 and statically forwards the packets via the interface 205 to the external communication link 212 and a next-hop external router. In this manner, the splitter 202 of FIG. 2A effectively routes packets based on forwarding decisions made by external routers and/or the physical router 112 a.

FIG. 2B shows a data plane implementation of the example REAP router 110 of FIG. 1. In this example, the physical routers 112 a-b are located within a router array 218. While the router array 218 shows the physical routers 112 a-b, the router array 218 may include additional physical routers (e.g., the physical routers 112 c-f). Further, each of the example routers 112 a-b may be assigned or partitioned a different address subspace. Additionally, communication links 220 and 222 communicatively couple the physical router 112 b to the splitter 202. For clarity and brevity, the internal interfaces of the splitter and the routers 112 a-b are not shown.

The example splitter 202 shown in FIGS. 2A-2C may include a server, a switch, a router, and/or a processor. The splitter 202 includes a forwarding table that may group entries based on address subspaces allocated among physical routers (e.g., the physical routers 112 a-b) within the router array 218. In some examples, the size of the forwarding table may be bounded by a number of address blocks partitioned among the physical routers 112 a-b, which may be orders of magnitude less than forwarding table sizes in typical network routers. Because the splitter 202 is a point of distribution for data and control packets, the forwarding table and/or interfaces of the splitter 202 may scale linearly based on the number of physical routers within the router array 218. In some examples, the splitter 202 may utilize virtual links over physical links to reduce the number of physical ports required. Also, because the splitter 202 is the point of distribution for received packets into the REAP router 110, the splitter 202 may become a packet forwarding time bottleneck. In these instances, multiple splitters may be implemented in parallel to distribute the routing to the router array 218 as described in conjunction with FIG. 5.

In the data plane configuration shown in FIG. 2B, the communication link 220 is added to the first interface set that includes the communication links 210 and 214. Additionally, the communication link 222 is added to the second interface set that includes the communication links 212 and 216. Thus, packets received by the splitter 202 via the communication link 210 may be routed by the splitter 202 to either the communication link 220 or 214 depending on an address prefix and/or destination address of the packets. Likewise, packets received by the splitter 202 via the communication link 212 may be routed by the splitter 202 to either of the communication link 222 or 216 depending on an address prefix and/or destination address of the packets.

For example, the REAP router 110 may route packets for an address space of A+B. The physical router 112 a may be assigned an address subspace A and the physical router 112 b may be assigned to an address subspace B. If the packets received by the splitter 202 via the communication link 212 have an address prefix and/or a destination address that corresponds to the address subspace B, the splitter 202 accesses a forwarding table and determines that the packets are to be forwarded to the physical router 112 b via the communication link 222. Similarly, if the packets corresponding to the address subspace B are received by the splitter 202 via the communication link 210, the splitter 202 may forward the packets to the physical router 112 b via the communication link 220.

However, packets received by the splitter 202 from the physical routers 112 a-b are statically forwarded to an external router via either of the communication links 210 and/or 212 based on an interface (e.g., communication link) of the splitter 202 that received the packets. For example, packets transmitted by the physical router 112 a to the splitter 202 via the communication link 214 are statically forwarded by the splitter 202 to the external communication link 210 because the communication links 210 and 214 are within the same interface set. In this manner, routing decisions made by the routers 112 a-b are carried through the splitter 202 to the external network.

FIG. 2C shows a control plane implementation of the example REAP router 110 of FIG. 1. To distribute control messages and/or packets among the physical routers 112 a-b, the example REAP router 110 includes a meta-router 230. The example meta-router 230 enables the physical routers 112 a-b to operate dynamic routing protocols and maintain address subspaces by facilitating communication between the routers 112 a-b and external network routers. The example meta-router 230 may be implemented by any processor, server, and/or router.

The example meta-router 230 may route control packets based on address prefixes advertised within a message payload of the control packets. For example, BGP control packets may describe advertised routes in a Network Layer Reachability Information (NLRI) field. In some examples, the meta-router 230 may be configured to route and/or forward control packets based on fixed-prefix length for Quality of Service (QoS) operations. In these examples, the physical routers 112 a-b within the router array 218 may be configured for routing data packets based on variable-prefix length and/or access control lists. These physical routers 112 a-b may also perform Netflow sampling, QoS policing, and/or support multicast functionality. In other examples, the meta-router 230 may route control packets to the physical routers 112 a-b based on a destination network address within a header of the packets.

The example meta-router 230 routes control packets for the physical routers 112 a-b within the router array 218 to maintain routing and forwarding states organized by address subspaces assigned to each of the routers 112 a-b. By routing control packets to an appropriate physical router, the example meta-router 230 ensures that the physical routers 112 a-b are responsible for an address subspace. The meta-router 230 may also monitor a status of the physical routers 112 a-b and adjust address subspaces based on router traffic loads, router maintenance, router inoperability, redundancy, and/or any other event that may affect the operation of a physical router.

The example meta-router 230 receives control packets from the splitter 202. The splitter 202 may receive packets from external routers via the communication links 210 and 212 and determine if the packets are data or control packets. The splitter 202 may determine the type of packet based on information within a header and/or payload of a packet. In other examples, a packet may be labeled as a control and/or a data packet. The splitter 202 forwards data packets to the physical routers 112 a-b and forwards control packets to the meta-router 230.

Upon receiving a control packet from the splitter 202, the example meta-router 230 inspects the packet for address and/or route information. The meta-router 230 may identify address prefix information within a payload of the packet and/or may identify a destination address within a header of the packet. Upon identifying this information, the meta-router 230 accesses a forwarding table to determine a physical router (e.g., the physical routers 112 a-b) and/or an outgoing interface to which the control packet is to be routed. The forwarding table may cross-reference a destination address and/or an address prefix to a specific physical router within the router array 218 and/or an outgoing interface. The example meta-router 230 then selects the outgoing interface corresponding to the information associated with the packet and transmits the packet to the splitter 202 via the outgoing interface. The splitter 202 then statically forwards the packet to the appropriate physical router.

In the example of FIG. 2C, the meta-router 230 is communicatively coupled to the splitter 202 via communication links 232-236. These communication links 232-236 may be included within the first interface set. For clarity and brevity, communication links associated with the second interface set are not shown. The communication link 236 may propagate packets from the splitter 202 to the meta-router 230 and the communication links 232 and 234 may propagate packets from the meta-router 230 to the splitter 202. The control packets received by the splitter 202 via the communication link 210 are forwarded to the meta-router 230 via the communication link 236 because the communication links 210 and 236 are part of the same interface set. Additionally, the communication link 232 corresponds to the communication link 214 so that any packets received by the splitter 202 via the communication link 232 are statically forwarded by the splitter 202 to the physical router 112 a via the communication link 214. In this manner, control packet routing decisions made by the meta-router 230 are propagated by the splitter 202. Similarly, the communication link 234 may correspond to the communication link 222 so that any packets received by the splitter 202 via the communication link 234 are statically forwarded to the physical router 112 b via the communication link 222.

Additionally, control packets received by the splitter 202 from the physical routers 112 a-b via the communication links 214 and 222 are statically forwarded by the splitter 202 to the meta-router 230 via the respective communication links 232 and 234. The meta-router 230 may then route the control packets to an external router via the splitter 202 by selecting an appropriate interface and/or communication link to the splitter (e.g., the communication links 236). By configuring the meta-router 230 to receive only control packets, the communication links between the splitter 202 and the meta-router 230 may be relatively lower capacity links compared to higher capacity communication links (e.g., the communication links 214-222) to accommodate relatively higher traffic of data packets.

FIG. 3 illustrates a functional block diagram of the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 2C. The example meta-router 230 configures and manages a control plane of the REAP router 110 of FIGS. 1-2C. The example meta-router 230 also routes control packets to appropriate routers (e.g., the physical routers 112 a-f of FIG. 1) within the router array 218. The meta-router 230 enables the routers 112 a-f within the router array 218 to function as though the routers 112 a-f are directly connected to external routers (e.g., the external routers 104 a-k) by preserving source and destination addresses of control messages. By having the routers 112 a-f configured as though they are directly connected to an external network, the example meta-router 230 reduces the likelihood of misconfigurations among the routers 112 a-f because the routers 112 a-f may not need to be configured specifically for the REAP router 110. Furthermore, the example meta-router 230 may reduce and/or eliminate a need for each of the routers 112 a-f within the router array 228 to perform packet payload network reachability address translation. For example, a local subnet advertised by the OSPF protocol may include an intended prefix that the example meta-router 230 may use for routing control packets. While the example meta-router 230 is shown implementing BGP using TCP as an underlying multi-hop transport protocol and OSPF using IP multicast and/or unicast packets as the underlying transport protocol, the example meta-router 230 may be implemented using any Internet, network, transport, and/or communication protocol.

To receive control packets originating from an external router, the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 includes an external interface 302. The example interface 302 is communicatively coupled to a communication link bundle 304 that communicatively couples the external interface 302 to the splitter 202 of FIGS. 2A-2C. The communication link bundle 304 may include the communication link 236 of FIG. 2C and/or other communication links to the splitter 202. The communication link bundle 304 may be implemented by any wired and/or wireless communication medium.

Additionally, to receive control packets originating from physical routers (e.g., the physical routers 112 a-f) within the router array 218, the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 includes a router array interface 303. The example router array interface 303 is communicatively coupled to a communication link bundle 305 that communicatively couples the router array interface 303 to the splitter 202 of FIG. 2. The communication link bundle 305 may include the communication links 232 and 234 of FIG. 2C and/or other communication links to the splitter 202. Further, the communication link bundle 305 may be implemented by any wired and/or wireless communication medium.

The example interfaces 302 and 303 include interfaces for each communication link coupled to the meta-router 230 via the respective communication link bundles 304 and 305. In other examples, each of the interfaces 302 and 303 may include a single interface for the communication links within the respective communication link bundles 304 and 305. The example interfaces 302 and 303 receive control packets and determine a protocol associated with the control packets. If the control packets are associated with a connection-oriented communication protocol (e.g., BGP), the example interfaces 302 and 303 route the packets to respective protocol queues 306 a-b. However, if the control packets are associated with a connectionless communication protocol (e.g., OSPF protocol), the interfaces 302 and 303 route the control packets to respective packet sockets 308 a-b. The interfaces 302 and 303 may identify a protocol of a packet based on information within a payload of the packet, information within a header of the packet, and/or based on a format of the packet. In other examples, the interfaces 302 and 303 may route control packets to other functional blocks for other types of communication protocols.

The example protocol queues 306 a-b of FIG. 3 translate source and/or destination addresses of control packets associated with a connection-oriented communication protocol so that the control packets may be routed within the meta-router 230. Typically, connection-oriented communication protocols such as, BGP, use loopback communications to establish connections between peer routers (e.g., a physical router and an external router). These loopback communications may ensure that peering sessions remain active and/or open as long as at least one path is available between an external router and a physical router within the router array 218. Additionally, the example protocol queues 306 a-b provide address translation because the meta-router 230 functions as a proxy between external routers and internal physical array routers. Without address translation, control packets received by the meta-router 230 may not be routed out of the meta-router 230 because the meta-router 230 may have the same destination address as the routers within the router array 218.

To translate control packet source and/or destination addresses, the example protocol queues 306 a-b identify a source and/or destination address within a header of a control packet. The protocol queues 306 a-b then assign a new address to the source and/or destination address based on a representation of the meta-router 230 of the source and/or destination address. The example protocol queues 306 a-b may also translate address prefixes included within a payload of control packets. The protocol queues 306 a-b may include a table that stores a list of addresses cross-referenced to the meta-router 230 representation of the addresses. An address based on a representation of the meta-router 230 is an address that corresponds to a physical router and/or an external router but may be only visible and/or addressable within the meta-router 230.

In an example, the protocol queue 306 b may receive a control packet originating from the physical router 112 a within the router array 218. The protocol queue 306 b translates the source address of the packet from 1.1.1.9 to 3.3.3.9 and translates the destination address of the packet from 1.1.1.10 to 3.3.3.10. The destination may correspond to the external router 104 k. The protocol queue 306 b then forwards the packet for routing within the meta-router 230. The example protocol queue 306 a may then receive the packet after the meta-router 230 has specified an outgoing interface for the packet. The protocol queue 306 a re-translates the packet to have the original source and destination address (e.g., 1.1.1.9 and 1.1.1.10) prior to forwarding the packet to the external interface 302. In this manner, the example protocol queues 306 a-b mask the presence of the meta-router 230 so that the physical router 112 a and the external router 104 k operate as if they are directly communicatively coupled.

Further, the protocol queues 306 a-b may aggregate control packets with similar destination and/or source addresses so that the meta-router 230 can perform routing on a group of similar packets. The protocol queues 306 a-b may aggregate packets for a time period and/or for a predefined number of packets prior to transmitting an aggregated group of packets. Upon aggregating and/or translating control packets, the protocol queues 306 a-b forward the control packets to respective protocol sockets 310 a-b.

The example protocol sockets 310 a-b receive control packets from the respective protocol queues 306 a-b and prepare the control packets for routing within a switch fabric 312. The example protocol sockets 310 a-b may be configured to operate on packets associated with a connection-oriented communication protocol. In some examples, the protocol sockets 310 a-b may separate source and/or destination addresses of the packet from a payload of the packet and forward the separated components to the switch fabric 312 and/or a management application operating through the switch fabric 312. Alternatively, the packet sockets 310 a-b may identify an address prefix within a payload of a control packet and forward the address prefix and the packet to the switch fabric 312 for routing.

In addition to receiving packets from the protocol queues 306 a-b, the protocol sockets 310 a-b may receive packets from the switch fabric 312. The switch fabric 312 may identify an outgoing interface to route a control packet and select a socket within the protocol sockets 310 a-b that corresponds to the selected outgoing interface. The protocol sockets 310 a-b then forward the control packets to the appropriate outgoing interface within the respective interfaces 302 and 303.

The example packet sockets 308 a-b of FIG. 3 receive and prepare control packets associated with connectionless communication protocols (e.g., OSPF protocol). Additionally, the packet sockets 308 a-b may translate addresses of the control packets similar to the operation of the protocol queues 306 a-b. Because the communication state may not be kept explicitly within sockets of the meta-router 230, the packet sockets 308 a-b are directly communicatively coupled to the respective interfaces 302 and 303. The example packet sockets 308 a-b may bridge network layer-2 to layer-3 so that multicast control packets associated with broadcast networks (e.g., Ethernets) may be routed within the meta-router 230.

In some examples, the packet sockets 308 a-b may separate source and/or destination addresses of the packet from a payload of the packet and forward the separated components to the switch fabric 312 and/or a management application operating through the switch fabric 312. Alternatively, the packet sockets 308 a-b may identify an address prefix within a payload of a control packet and forward the address prefix and the packet to the switch fabric 312 for routing.

In addition to receiving packets from the interfaces 302 and 303, the packet sockets 308 a-b may receive packets from the switch fabric 312. The switch fabric 312 may identify an outgoing interface to route a control packet and select a socket within the packet sockets 308 a-b that corresponds to the selected outgoing interface. The packet sockets 308 a-b may then transfer the packets from the network layer-3 to the network layer-2 and forward the control packets to the appropriate outgoing interface within the respective interfaces 302 and 303.

To route control packets to an appropriate physical router (e.g., the physical routers 112 a-f of FIG. 1), the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 includes the switch fabric 312. The example switch fabric 312 routes the control packets on a routing data unit (RDU) level, where each RDU may describe and/or correspond to address blocks representing an address subspace. For example, an RDU for the OSPF protocol may describe a portion of an address space topology (e.g., an address subspace) and/or a destination network prefix. In another example, an RDU for the BGP may describe a portion of an address space topology as part of an AS path with a NLRI prefix.

Upon receiving control packet(s) from the packet sockets 308 a-b and/or the protocol sockets 310 a-b, the example switch fabric 312 accesses a forwarding table 314 to identify a physical router and/or an outgoing interface to transmit the packet(s). The example forwarding table 314 includes entries that partition an address space into subspaces that are assigned to physical routers (e.g., the physical routers 112 a-f). The forwarding table 314 may be implemented by Electronically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), Read-Only Memory (ROM), and/or any other type of memory.

The example switch fabric 312 may access a forwarding list within the forwarding table 314 and cross-reference a destination address provided by the sockets 308 a-b and/or 310 a-b to a physical router and/or an outgoing interface. In other examples, the switch fabric 312 may use advertised network prefixes provided by the sockets 308 a-b and/or 310 a-b to identify a physical router and/or an outgoing interface. In other examples, the switch fabric 312 may determine an outgoing socket for the control packets based on address information (e.g., a network prefix and/or a destination address). Upon identifying an outgoing interface and/or physical router, the example switch fabric 312 identifies a socket associated with the outgoing interface and/or the physical router. The socket may be included within the packet sockets 308 a-b and/or the protocol sockets 310 a-b based on a protocol associated with the control packets. In some examples, a socket may correspond to and be communicatively coupled to an outgoing interface. The switch fabric 312 then transmits the control packets to the appropriate socket, which then forwards the packet to the corresponding outgoing interface (e.g., an interface within the external interface 202 and/or the router array interface 303). In other examples, a socket may statically forward the packet to the interface 302 and/or 303, which then selects the appropriate outgoing interface.

To manage address subspaces assigned to the physical routers within the router array 218, the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 includes an address space manager 316. The address space manager 316 may receive control plane information via the sockets 308 a-b and/or 310 a-b. In other examples, the address space manager 316 may receive control plane information from a REAP router 110 administrator. The address space manager 316 may reduce the number of meta-routing entries within the forwarding table 314 by assigning contiguous blocks of prefixes of substantially the same length to the physical routers within the router array 218. Additionally, the example address space manager 316 may simplify data structures and routing computation performed by the switch fabric 312.

In some examples, the address space manager 316 may distribute address subspace relatively evenly among physical routers in the router array 218. In other examples, the address space may be divided into relatively equal address subspace blocks. The address space manager 316 may use an algorithm (e.g., a greedy heuristic algorithm) so that address blocks with the highest loads are distributed evenly among the physical routers within the router array 218. The address space manager 316 may use the algorithm until all of the address subspaces are assigned to at least one physical router.

In other examples, the address space manager 316 may calculate a ratio of address blocks to a number of physical routers. A relatively large ratio may result in a relatively lower load imbalance among the physical routers. In another example, the address space manager 316 may minimize a standard deviation of load imbalance among the physical routers by analyzing the ratio of ratio of address blocks to physical routers. For example, calculations may show that load imbalance is minimized when a number of address blocks assigned to physical routers in a router array 218 is eight times a number of physical routers. In yet another example, the address space manager 316 may analyze data packet loads on the physical routers for a time period (e.g., a day, a week, a month, etc.). The packet traffic at each router during the time period may be measured using a Netflow application that forwards the data to the address space manager 316. The address space manager 316 may then redistribute the address blocks among the physical routers based on the measured load.

The example address space manager 316 assigns address subspace blocks to the physical routers in a router array 218 by defining a list in the forwarding table 314 that specifies an address subspace for each physical router. In addition to load balancing, the address space manager 316 may also modify address subspaces in instances where a physical router becomes inoperable. A physical router may become inoperable from regular maintenance, software upgrades, hardware upgrades, addition of subcomponents, broken communication links, and/or any other activity that may cause a physical router to stop routing packets. Upon identifying an inoperable physical router, the example address space manager 316 may repartition address subspaces so that blocks assigned to the inoperable router are reassigned to operable physical routers within the router array 218.

The example address space manager 316 of FIG. 3 may also store configuration information associated with the meta-router 230. The configuration information may include definitions specifying which sockets are assigned and/or configured to certain protocols (e.g., the protocol sockets 310 a-b assigned to the BGP). The configuration information may also include socket, interface, and/or communication link information. For example, the address space manager 316 may specify that the communication link 236 of FIG. 2C is communicatively coupled to a particular interface within the external interface 202, which is communicatively coupled to a particular socket within the protocol socket 310 a. An example of configuration information associated with a physical router (e.g., the physical router 112 a) that may be stored and/or managed by the address space manager 316 is shown below.

Line Configuration Information 1. System_Wide 2. REAP-interface-set 19029:eth4/3.10.49320: eth1.20,29301:eth2/0,49320:eth1.21 3. REAP-interface-set 19029:eth4/3.10.49320: eth1.20,21121:eth2/0.40,49320:eth1.22 4. Loopback 2.2.2.10 5. Connected_Interface 19029:eth4/5,29301:eth2/0 6. Address_Bits 2 7. Router_ID 29301 8. Router_Type arrayrouter 9. Daemon_Port 9001 10. Daemon_Addr 135.207.11.116 11. Router_Man_Int eth0/0:135.207.11.72:255.255.255.192 12. Username xxxxxx 13. Password xxxxxx 14. Loopback 2.2.2.10, 3.2.0.100 15. Router_Int eth2/0:40.40.41.2:255.255.255.0:1.1.5.2:255.255.255.252 16. Address_blocks 0,2,3

In this example, line 1 may indicate the configuration information applies to the entire REAP router 110. Lines 2 and 3 may define interface set communication links (e.g., the first interface set including the communication links 210, 236, 232, 214, and 216 of FIG. 2C) associated with the physical router. Line 4 may specify a loopback address for control packets associated with the BGP that may be used by the example meta-router 230 to set up TCP listening sockets within the protocol sockets 310 a-b associated with the physical router. Line 5 may define an outgoing interface within one of the interfaces 302 and/or 303 to the physical router. Line 6 may specify a number of most significant bits of an address prefix used by the switch fabric 312 to route control packets. Additionally, lines 7 and 8 may specify identification information associated with the REAP router 110. Lines 9 and 10 may define and/or specify an address of the address space manager 316 that control information may be forwarded for managing the meta-router 230. Further, lines 11-13 may indicate information for managing a physical router within the router array 218 and/or the splitter 202. Lines 14 and 15 may specify addresses assigned to an interface corresponding to a physical router. Line 16 may indicate the address blocks assigned to the address subspace of the physical router. Additionally or alternatively, the configuration information may include more or fewer instructions based on a configuration of the meta-router 230 with physical routers within the router array 218.

To manage failure recovery and/or redundancy among physical routers within the router array 218, the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 includes a duplicate manager 318. The example duplicate manager 318 copies control packets routed by the switch fabric 312. If one of the physical routers becomes inoperable and/or a secondary router is assigned to backup a primary physical router, the example duplicate manager 318 sends a copy of the appropriate control packets to the secondary and/or replacement router. In this manner, the replacement router only needs to obtain control plane information from the meta-router 230 instead of sending control plane requests to external routers. The duplicate manager 318 may store a copy of the control packets in an RDU cache 320. The example RDU cache 320 may be implemented by EEPROM, RAM, ROM, and/or any other type of memory. The duplicate manager 318 is further described below in conjunction with FIGS. 6A and 6B.

While an example manner of implementing the meta-router 230 is depicted in FIG. 3, one or more of the interfaces, data structures, elements, processes and/or devices illustrated in FIG. 3 may be combined, divided, rearranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way. For example, the example external interface 302, the example router array interface 303, the communication link bundles 304 and 305, the example protocol queues 306 a-b, the example packet sockets 308 a-b, the example protocol sockets 310 a-b, the example switch fabric 312, the example forwarding table 314, the example address space manager 316, the example duplicate manager 318, and/or the example RDU cache 320 illustrated in FIG. 3 may be implemented separately and/or in any combination using, for example, machine-accessible or readable instructions executed by one or more computing devices and/or computing platforms (e.g., the example processing platform P100 of FIG. 8).

Further, the example external interface 302, the example router array interface 303, the communication link bundles 304 and 305, the example protocol queues 306 a-b, the example packet sockets 308 a-b, the example protocol sockets 310 a-b, the example switch fabric 312, the example forwarding table 314, the example address space manager 316, the example duplicate manager 318, example RDU cache 320 and/or, more generally, the example meta-router 230 may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or any combination of hardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of the example external interface 302, the example router array interface 303, the communication link bundles 304 and 305, the example protocol queues 306 a-b, the example packet sockets 308 a-b, the example protocol sockets 310 a-b, the example switch fabric 312, the example forwarding table 314, the example address space manager 316, the example duplicate manager 318, example RDU cache 320 and/or, more generally, the example meta-router 230 can be implemented by one or more circuit(s), programmable processor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), etc. When any of the appended apparatus claims are read to cover a purely software implementation, at least one of the example external interface 302, the example router array interface 303, the communication link bundles 304 and 305, the example protocol queues 306 a-b, the example packet sockets 308 a-b, the example protocol sockets 310 a-b, the example switch fabric 312, the example forwarding table 314, the example address space manager 316, the example duplicate manager 318, and/or the example RDU cache 320 are hereby expressly defined to include a tangible medium such as a memory, DVD, CD, etc. Further still, the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 may include one or more elements, processes and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, those illustrated in FIG. 3, and/or may include more than one of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes and devices.

FIG. 4 illustrates the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 performing address translation for control packet routing. FIG. 4 shows the meta-router 230, protocol queues 306 a-b, and protocol sockets 310 a-b. The other components of the meta-router 230 shown in FIG. 3 are omitted for clarity and brevity. Additionally, the splitter 202 and the REAP router 110 are not shown. While the example in FIG. 4 shows one type of address translation for BGP, the example meta-router 230 may include other functional components for performing address translation for other types of communication protocols and/or translation for network prefix information included within a payload of the control packets.

In the example of FIG. 4, the physical router 112 a, which is included within the router array 218 (not shown), is assigned a source address of 1.1.1.9. During a BGP peering connection with the external router 104 b, the physical router 112 a transmits a reply and/or response message to a loopback address (e.g., 1.1.1.10) of the external router 104 b. The reply and/or response message may be included within one or more control packets with a source address of 1.1.1.9 and a destination address of 1.1.1.10. Because the physical router 112 a operates as if the control packet(s) are being transmitted directly to the external router 104 b, the physical router 112 a transmits the control packet(s) to the destination address 1.1.1.10. However, the physical router 112 a does not select a route for the control packet(s) by transmitting the control packet(s) via the communication link 214 to the splitter 202 as described in conjunction with FIG. 2B. Instead, the example meta-router 230 performs the routing function by routing the control packet(s) to an appropriate interface communicatively coupled to the external router 104 b.

Upon receiving the control packet(s), the protocol queue 306 b identifies the source and/or destination address and accesses a translation reference table and/or list for corresponding representative addresses used locally by the meta-router 230. In this example, the protocol queue 306 b determines that the 1.1.1.9 source address corresponds to a 3.3.3.9 address and the 1.1.1.10 destination address corresponds to a 3.3.3.10 address. The protocol queue 306 b then replaces (e.g., translates) the source and destination addresses in a header(s) of the control packet(s) with the corresponding addresses and forwards the control packet(s) to the protocol socket 310 b. The protocol socket 310 b then prepares the control packet(s) for processing by the switch fabric 312 (not shown). In examples where the packet is associated with the OSPF protocol, the packet sockets 308 a-b may translate the addresses. The switch fabric 312 accesses the forwarding table 314 using the translated destination address to determine an outgoing interface and/or the external router 104 b that corresponds to the destination address and/or the outgoing interface.

The protocol socket 310 a receives the control packet(s) from the switch fabric 312 via a socket corresponding to a selected outgoing interface. The protocol socket 310 a forwards the control packet(s) to the protocol queue 306(a), which then accesses a reference table to translate the source and destination address into the original addresses (e.g., 1.1.1.9 and 1.1.1.10) transmitted by the physical router 112 a. The protocol queue 306 a sends the translated control packet(s) to the external router 104 b via the outgoing interface to the splitter 202. In this manner, the address translation performed by the meta-router 230 causes the external router 104 b to operate as if the control packets are sent directly from the physical router 112 a. As a result of this address translation, the meta-router 230 may perform control packet routing for the REAP router 110 without having to reconfigure external routers to accommodate the REAP router 110.

FIG. 5 illustrates the example REAP router 110 of FIGS. 1, 2A, 2B, and/or 2C implementing link bundling. In some REAP routers 110 with a relatively large number of physical routers within the router array 218, the splitter 202 may be partitioned into two or more splitters 202 a-b to distribute data packet and/or control packet forwarding loads. The splitter 202 may also be partitioned into the splitters 202 a-b in instances where the single splitter 202 bottlenecks data packet routing. In other examples, the splitter 202 a may be a primary splitter while the splitter 202 b functions as a redundant and/or backup splitter. Further, other examples may include additional splitters.

The example splitters 202 a-b are communicatively coupled to the meta-router 230, the external router 104 b, and the physical routers 112 a-b within the router array 218. Because the REAP router 110 may not include a router to route packets among the splitters 202 a-b, the splitters 202 a-b may include forwarding tables and be communicatively coupled to all of the physical routers (e.g., the routers 112 a-b) within the router array 218. In this manner, each of the splitters 202 a-b functions similarly to the splitter 202, with the incoming data packets distributed between the splitters 202 a-b.

The example in FIG. 5 shows that communication links from the external router 104 to the splitters 202 a-b are bundled together by a first bundle 502. The first bundle 502 functions as a composite layer-3 link that includes physical communication links to the splitters 202 a-b. Additionally, communication links from the splitters 202 a-b to the physical router 112 a are grouped together in a single logical layer-3 link by a second bundle 504 and communication links from the splitters 202 a-b to the physical router 112 b are grouped together by a second bundle 506. Using the bundles 502-506, the example REAP router 110 may perform load balancing among the splitters 202 a-b and across multiple physical communication links on a per-flow basis. In other words, because the partitioning is preformed similarly by the splitters 202 a-b based on address space, packets within a similar flow continue to be sent by the splitters 202 a-b to the same physical router 112 a-b. As a result of the link bundles 502-506, the example REAP router 110 may partition data packet and/or control packet routing without increasing packet routing times.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate the example meta-router 230 of FIG. 3 transitioning to a secondary router (e.g., the physical router 112 b) within the router array 218. In the examples of FIGS. 6A and 6B, only the meta-router 230, the switch fabric 312, the duplicate manager 318 and the RDU cache 320 are shown for clarity and brevity. Additionally, while the physical routers 112 a-b are shown, other physical routers within the router array 218 may be used as redundant routers.

FIG. 6A shows the physical router 112 a within the REAP router 110 communicating with the external router 104 a during a peering session. During this session, the external router 104 a and the physical router 112 a exchange control packets with reachability information. In this manner, the external router 104 a and the physical router 112 a may establish a network route and/or communication path for routing packets within the communication system 100 of FIG. 1.

During the exchange of control packets, the duplicate manager 318 makes a copy of the control packets as the control packets are routed by the switch fabric 312. The duplicate manager 318 then stores the copies of the control packets to the RDU cache 320. In other examples, the duplicate manager 318 may copy and store control information included within the control packets. Alternatively, the duplicate manager 318 may copy and store the control information as RDUs associated with an address subspace. In addition to copying and storing control plane information within the RDU cache 320, the duplicate manager 318 may organize and/or optimize the storage of the control plane information.

FIG. 6B shows that the example meta-router 230 has switched routing to the secondary physical router 112 b. The meta-router 230 may switch control to a secondary router when the primary physical router 112 a fails and/or a communication link to the router 112 a fails. The meta-router 230 may include functionality to monitor the physical routers 112 a-b. Alternatively, the example duplicate manager 318 may monitor control packets to detect when a router fails. In other examples, the duplicate manager 318 may receive a message that indicates the physical router 112 a will be taken offline. In yet other examples, the duplicate manager 318 may determine that the physical router 112 a is experiencing a relatively large traffic load and reduce the address subspace assigned to the router 112 a.

Upon determining that the secondary router 112 b is to route data packets as a replacement to the primary physical router 112 a, the duplicate manager 318 accesses the RDU cache 320 and retrieves the control plane information (e.g., control packets) associated with the primary physical router 112 a. The duplicate manager 318 then transmits the control plane information to the physical router 112 b. If the physical router 112 b sends a reply and/or request message for additional control plane information, the duplicate manager 318 accesses the RDU cache 320 and transmits the appropriate control plane information to the router 112 b. In addition to sending control packets to the secondary router 112 b, the example duplicate manager 318 may also send instructions to the splitter 202 to adjust forwarding tables to reflect the router change. In this manner, the REAP router 110 may adjust address subspaces assigned to routers and/or bring secondary routers online without having to send control packets to external routers. Thus, the change of the physical routers 112 a-b occurs without the external router 104 b being aware of the change.

FIGS. 7A-7C are flowcharts representative of example machine-accessible instructions that may be executed by a machine to implement the example external interface 302, the example router array interface 303, the communication link bundles 304 and 305, the example protocol queues 306 a-b, the example packet sockets 308 a-b, the example protocol sockets 310 a-b, the example switch fabric 312, the example forwarding table 314, the example address space manager 316, the example duplicate manager 318, example RDU cache 320 and/or, more generally, the example meta-router 230 of FIGS. 1-6B. The example instructions of FIGS. 7A-7C may be carried out or executed by a processor, a controller and/or any other suitable processing device. For example, the example instructions of FIGS. 7A-7C may be embodied in coded instructions stored on any tangible computer-readable medium such as a flash memory, a CD, a DVD, a floppy disk, a ROM, a RAM, a programmable ROM (PROM), an electronically-programmable ROM EPROM, EEPROM, an optical storage disk, an optical storage device, magnetic storage disk, a magnetic storage device, and/or any other tangible or non-tangible medium that can be used to carry or store program code and/or instructions in the form of methods or data structures, and which can be accessed and executed by a processor, a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or other machine with a processor (e.g., the example processor platform P100 discussed below in connection with FIG. 8). Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media. Alternatively, some or all of the example instructions represented by FIGS. 7A-7C may be implemented using any combination(s) of ASIC(s), PLD(s), FPLD(s), discrete logic, hardware, firmware, etc.

Also, one or more of the example instructions represented by FIGS. 7A-7C may instead be implemented using manual operations or as any combination of any of the foregoing techniques, for example, any combination of firmware, software, discrete logic and/or hardware. Furthermore, many other methods of implementing the example instructions of FIGS. 7A-7C may be employed. For example, the order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or one or more of the blocks described may be changed, eliminated, sub-divided, or combined. Additionally, any or all of the example instructions of FIGS. 7A-7C may be carried out sequentially and/or carried out in parallel by, for example, separate processing threads, processors, devices, discrete logic, circuits, etc.

The example instructions 700 of FIGS. 7A-7C route packets within the example REAP router 110 of FIGS. 1-6B. Multiple instances of the example instructions 700 may be executed in parallel or series to route packets within the REAP router 110. Additionally, while the example instructions 700 describe routing packets received from an external router, the instructions 700 associated with routing control packets may be substantially similar for control packets transmitted by physical routers within the router array 218.

The example instructions 700 of FIG. 7C begin when the REAP router 110 receives a packet at the splitter 202 (block 702). The example instructions 700 (e.g., the splitter 202) then determine if the packet is a control packet or a data packet (block 704). If the example instructions 700 determine that the packet is a data packet (block 704), the example instructions (e.g., the splitter 202) access a forwarding table to determine a physical router and/or an interface (e.g., a communication link) to which the data packet is to be forwarded (block 710). Upon determining a physical router and/or an interface, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the splitter 202) queues the data packet with similar data packets (block 712).

The example instructions 700 continue with the splitter 202 determining if the threshold is reached (block 714). If the threshold is not reached, the example instructions 700 return to receiving packets (block 702). However, if the threshold is reached, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the splitter 202) transmit the similar data packet(s) in the queue to the determined physical router via the interface and/or corresponding communication link (block 716). The example instructions 700 (e.g., the physical router) then perform data plane operations on the data packet(s) (block 718). Data plane operations may include identifying an outgoing interface to transmit the data packet(s) to a destination specified within a header of the data packet(s).

Upon identifying an outgoing interface, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the physical router) transmit the data packet(s) to the splitter via the interface and/or the communication link (block 720). The example instructions 700 (e.g., the splitter 202) statically forward the data packet(s) to an external router and/or destination based on the interface that received the data packet(s) (block 722). The example instructions 700 (e.g., the REAP router 110) continue by receiving a packet at the splitter 202 (block 702).

However, if the example instructions 700 (e.g., the splitter 202) determine that the received packet is a control packet (block 704), the example instructions route the packet to the meta-router 230 (block 730). Next, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the external interface 302) of FIG. 7B receive the control packet (block 732). The example instructions 700 (e.g., the protocol queue 706) then change a source and/or a destination address of the packet to a source and/or destination address local to the meta-router 230 (block 734). The example instructions may also translate an address prefix within a payload of the control packet. The example instructions 700 (e.g., the protocol socket 310 a) may then identify an address prefix of the control packet (block 736). In other examples, the example instructions 700 may identify a source and/or destination address within header(s) of the control packet. The example instructions 700 (e.g., the switch fabric 312) access the forwarding table 314 and determine a physical router, socket and/or interface associated with the address (block 738). Additionally, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the protocol queues 306 a-b and/or the switch fabric 312) aggregate the control packet with packets having similar address prefixes, source addresses, and/or destination addresses (block 740).

The example instructions 700 (e.g., the protocol queues 306 a-b and/or the switch fabric 312) continue by determining if a queue threshold is reached (block 742). If the threshold is not reached, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the REAP router 110) return to receiving packets (block 702). However, if the threshold is reached, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the protocol queue 306 b) restores (e.g., translates) the original prefix, source, and/or destination address of the control packet(s) (block 744). Additionally, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the switch fabric 312) may route the control packet(s) to the appropriate socket within the protocol socket 310 b. In some examples, the example instructions 700 may route the packet(s) to the socket prior to translating the packet(s). The example instructions 700 (e.g., the router array interface 303) then transmit the control packet(s) to the splitter 202 via the identified outgoing interface (block 746).

The example instructions 700 (e.g., the splitter 202) of FIG. 7C continue by statically forwarding the control packet(s) to the physical router via a communication link based on an interface that received the packet(s) (block 748). Next, the example instructions 700 (e.g., the physical router) receive the control packet(s) at the physical router within the router array 218 (block 750). In other examples, when a physical router transmits packets to the splitter 202, the example instructions 700 may route the control packet(s) to an external router corresponding to a destination address within a header of the control packet(s). Upon receiving, the example instructions 700 (e.g., via the physical router) update a control plane of the router based on control information within a payload of the packet(s) (block 752). In some examples, the example instructions 700 may transit loopback control information to the external router that originated the control packet(s) via the splitter 202 and/or the meta-router 230 (block 754). Next, the example instructions 700 return to receiving packets that the splitter 202 (block 702).

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an example processor platform P100 that may be used and/or programmed to execute the instructions of FIGS. 7A-7C to implement the example external interface 302, the example router array interface 303, the communication link bundles 304 and 305, the example protocol queues 306 a-b, the example packet sockets 308 a-b, the example protocol sockets 310 a-b, the example switch fabric 312, the example forwarding table 314, the example address space manager 316, the example duplicate manager 318, example RDU cache 320 and/or, more generally, the example meta-router 230 of FIGS. 1-6B. For example, the processor platform P100 can be implemented by one or more general-purpose processors, processor cores, microcontrollers, etc.

The processor platform P100 of the example of FIG. 8 includes at least one general purpose programmable processor P105. The processor P105 executes coded instructions P110 and/or P112 present in main memory of the processor P105 (e.g., within a RAM P115 and/or a ROM P120). The coded instructions P110 and/or P112 may be the instructions of FIGS. 7A-7C. The processor P105 may be any type of processing unit, such as a processor core, a processor and/or a microcontroller. The processor P105 may execute, among other things, the example processes of FIGS. 7A-7C to implement the example methods, articles of manufacture, and apparatus described herein.

The processor P105 is in communication with the main memory (including a ROM P120 and/or the RAM P115) via a bus P125. The RAM P115 may be implemented by DRAM, SDRAM, and/or any other type of RAM device, and ROM may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the memory P115 and the memory P120 may be controlled by a memory controller (not shown). One or both of the example memories P115 and P120 may be used to implement the example forwarding table 314 and/or RDU cache 320 of FIG. 3.

The processor platform P100 also includes an interface circuit P130. The interface circuit P130 may be implemented by any type of interface standard, such as an external memory interface, serial port, general-purpose input/output, etc. One or more input devices P135 and one or more output devices P140 are connected to the interface circuit P130.

At least some of the above described example methods and/or apparatus are implemented by one or more software and/or firmware programs running on a computer processor. However, dedicated hardware implementations including, but not limited to, application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices can likewise be constructed to implement some or all of the example methods and/or apparatus described herein, either in whole or in part. Furthermore, alternative software implementations including, but not limited to, distributed processing or component/object distributed processing, parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also be constructed to implement the example methods and/or apparatus described herein.

It should also be noted that the example software and/or firmware implementations described herein are stored on a tangible storage medium, such as: a magnetic medium (e.g., a magnetic disk or tape); a magneto-optical or optical medium such as an optical disk; or a solid state medium such as a memory card or other package that houses one or more read-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories, or other re-writable (volatile) memories. Accordingly, the example software and/or firmware described herein can be stored on a tangible storage medium such as those described above or successor storage media.

Additionally, although this patent discloses example apparatus including software or firmware executed on hardware, it should be noted that such apparatus are merely illustrative and should not be considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or all of these hardware and software components could be embodied exclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware or in some combination of hardware, firmware and/or software. Accordingly, while the above specification described example apparatus, methods and articles of manufacture, the examples are not the only way to implement such apparatus, methods and articles of manufacture. Therefore, although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A routing apparatus comprising: memory including computer-readable instructions; a processor; a plurality of internal routers including a first internal router; a meta-router including plurality of outgoing interfaces, the processor to execute the computer-readable instructions to perform operations including: accessing a control packet originating from the first internal router, a destination address of the control packet having a first value; translating the destination address of the control packet from the first value to a second value; identifying a first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router based on the second value of the destination address of the control packet; and forwarding the control packet to the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router after translating the destination address of the control packet from the second value back to the first value; and a splitter including a plurality of incoming interfaces in communication with the plurality of outgoing interfaces of the meta-router, the splitter to route the control packet to an external router based which one of the incoming interfaces receives the control packet from the meta-router.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control packet is associated with an open shortest path first protocol.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations further include: translating a source address of the control packet from a third value to a fourth value before identifying which one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router is to receive the control packet; and translating the source address of the control packet from the fourth value back to the third value before forwarding the control packet to the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first value of the destination address of the control packet corresponds to a loopback address of the external router, and the third value of the source address of the control packet corresponds to a loopback address of the first internal router.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router includes accessing a forwarding table cross-referencing translated destination address values to ones of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the destination address is included in a payload of the control packet.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein to route the control packet to the external router, the splitter is to statically route the control packet to a next-hop router towards the external router based on which one of the incoming interfaces of the splitter receives the control packet.
 8. A routing method comprising: accessing, by executing an instruction with a processor, a control packet originating from a first internal router of a plurality of internal routers in communication with a meta-router, a destination address of the control packet having a first value; translating, by executing an instruction with the processor, the destination address of the control packet from the first value to a second value; identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a first one of a plurality of outgoing interfaces of the meta-router based on the second value of the destination address of the control packet, the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router in communication with respective incoming interfaces of a splitter; forwarding, by executing an instruction with the processor, the control packet to the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router after translating the destination address of the control packet from the second value back to the first value; and routing the control packet from the splitter to an external router based on which one of the incoming interfaces of the splitter receives the control packet from the meta-router.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the control packet is associated with an open shortest path first protocol.
 10. The method of claim 8, further including: translating a source address of the control packet from a third value to a fourth value before identifying which one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router is to receive the control packet; and translating the source address of the control packet from the fourth value back to the third value before forwarding the control packet to the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first internal router and the external router are in a border gateway protocol peering connection, the control packet includes a reply to be sent to the external router, the first value of the destination address of the control packet corresponds to a loopback address of the external router, and the third value of the source address of the control packet corresponds to a loopback address of the first internal router.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the identifying of the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router includes accessing a forwarding table cross-referencing translated destination address values to ones of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router.
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein the destination address is included in a payload of the control packet.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein the routing of the control packet from the splitter to the external router includes statically routing the control packet from the splitter to a next-hop router towards the external router based on which one of the incoming interfaces of the splitter receives the control packet.
 15. A computer-readable storage device including computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: accessing a control packet originating from a first internal router of a plurality of internal routers in communication with a meta-router, a destination address of the control packet having a first value; translating the destination address of the control packet from the first value to a second value; identifying a first one of a plurality of outgoing interfaces of the meta-router based on the second value of the destination address of the control packet, the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router in communication with respective incoming interfaces of a splitter; and forwarding the control packet to the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router after translating the destination address of the control packet from the second value back to the first value, the splitter to route the control packet to an external router based on which one of the incoming interfaces of the splitter receives the control packet from the meta-router.
 16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the control packet is associated with an open shortest path first protocol.
 17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the operations further include: translating a source address of the control packet from a third value to a fourth value before identifying which one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router is to receive the control packet; and translating the source address of the control packet from the fourth value back to the third value before forwarding the control packet to the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router.
 18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein the first value of the destination address of the control packet corresponds to a loopback address of the external router, and the third value of the source address of the control packet corresponds to a loopback address of the first internal router.
 19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the identifying of the first one of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router includes accessing a forwarding table cross-referencing translated destination address values to ones of the outgoing interfaces of the meta-router.
 20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the destination address is included in a payload of the control packet. 